The Economic and Political Causes of European Exploration and Colonization

The Economic and Political Causes of European Exploration and Colonization By 1400s, European countries began to dominate the globe with trade and advanced technologies. England, Spain, France and Portugal emerged as the strongest nations in the 1400s and 1500s. For reasons separate for each, the dominant European powers desired to expand their reign beyond Europe. Europeans began exploring various economic reasons, but they did not want to set up colonies right away. However, political reasons arose after the first discovery of the New World for European nations to begin colonizing lands to expand their authorities. Wealth, national pride, and religious and political freedom were the main causes of exploration and colonization. First, the primary aim of exploration was to find an alternative route by sea to the riches of the East. In the 1400s, European nations were using trade to gain wealth. In particular, trade with Asia for luxuries such as silks, spices, gold, and jewels that were not available in Europe was lucrative business. However, Muslims controlled the land trade route because it was geographically located between Europe and Asia; Europeans had difficulty traveling by land to Asia because they had religious conflicts with the Muslims. As a solution, the Europeans sought ways to go by sea. Chritopher Columbus himself was attempting to do just that. Early explorers such as Columbus and Magellan began their voyages in search of trade routes with Asia. However, they were not equipped with good maps or fast ships to make such voyages. Columbus thought he would reach Asia by sailing west (under the knowledge that Earth was round), but in fact, he reached America or the New World. Although Columbus began a series of European explorations, there was little interest in colonizing because their primary goal had been economic - to establish new routes of trade for wealth. While Columbus’ discovery of the New...

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...EuropeanExploration—Causes and Effects
Causes
Desire for wealth and power. (Gold and Glory)
European explorers hoped to find riches in distant countries and to discover a sea route to Asia.
Search for spices (nutmeg, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, etc.) and luxury goods (silk, gold, silver, jewels, ivory, porcelains, tea, etc.) from Africa and the East.
Religious aims (God)
Europeans hoped to spread Christianity to people throughout the world and to drive Muslims out of other lands.
Renaissance spirit
Europeans adventurers wanted to test the limits of human ability and to explore the unknown. Discover far away places and settle in the new lands.
Improvements in technology
Europeans began to build stronger, faster sailing ships (caravel, a ship with two sails one each for running with the wind and for sailing into the wind.
The hull design was improved and could ride out ocean storms.
They could also put canons on the decks of these ships).
They developed better navigational instruments (astrolabe, could tell north and south of the equator by the position of the stars
magnetic compass, told direction accurately)
more accurate maps with the discovery of how to find the longitude.
Immediate...

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The EuropeanExploration
HIS111 Lecture 190
August 27, 2014
“European overseas expansion after 1600 entered a second phase, comparable to developments at home. As Spain declined, so did the Spanish empire and that of Portugal, which was tied to Spain by a Habsburg king after 1580 and plagued with its own developing imperial problems. These new conditions afforded opportunities for northern European states. The Dutch, between 1630 and 1650, almost cleared the Atlantic of Spanish warships and took over most of the Portuguese posts in Brazil, Africa, and Asia. The French and English also became involved on a smaller scale, setting up their global duel for empire in the eighteenth century” (history-world.org).
The cause of European expansion was due to the overseas discovery, the growth in population and price inflation of all goods. The Europeans needed new markets were needed to sell their goods.
on.
By 1650, the Dutch were supreme in both southern Asia and the South
Atlantic. Their empire, like the Portuguese earlier, was primarily commercial;
even their North American settlements specialized in fur trading with the
Indians. They acquired territory where necessary to further their commerce but
tried to advance their interests by pragmatic policies, in accord with native
cultures, rather than by conquest. Unlike the Spanish and...

...Cause &amp; Effect EuropeanExploration Essay
Throughout history, people have been curious about finding new land and exploring. Many different factors stirred interest in colonization and exploration for Europeans. During the 15th and 17th centuries Europe was changing rapidly and had its own reasons for growth. All of Europe had the excitement and hesitation of finding new places.
There were many reasons for Europe to grow and expand, some of the causes for Europe’s expansion were; a search for new trade routes, religion, new technology, the desire for new products and gold. Europe wanted to find a new trade route to Asia because they wanted the silk, spices, jewels, and riches from China and India that were very valuable. One of the problems that were faced was that when they arrived in Western Europe, the products had been taxed so many times along the way that they were extremely expensive. They wanted to find a route around so that they could get the goods first. They wanted to find a northwest passage. Christian rulers in Europe wanted to spread their religion of Christianity throughout the overseas exploration, they felt they had a duty to keep fighting for Muslims but also to convert non- Christians throughout the world. Bartolomeu Dias (Portuguese explorer) said that his motive was “to serve God and His Majesty, to give light to those who were in...

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Evaluate (Find) the causes of the East Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-1998
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Political, economic and legal aspects in European integration issues.
Communities.
The first step in post-war integration was the European Coal and Steel Community (EC&SC), the treaty signed in Paris on 18th April 1951 (entered into force on 23 July 1952. It expired in 2002.
Another two fundamental treaties were signed in Rome in 1957 by the six original member states in order to form the EuropeanEconomic Community - EEC and EURATOM Treaty (European Atomic Energy Community). These treaties, together with the very first one - European Coal and Steel Community- EC&SC, represented both the strong movement at that time in Europe towards more tense international cooperation and desire to create a “common market”. And the last but not the least is Lisbon Treaty which is an international agreement which amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union . The Lisbon Treaty was signed by the EU member states on 13 December 2007, and entered into force on 1 December 2009. It amends the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC; also known as the Treaty of Rome). In this process, the Rome Treaty was renamed to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
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Merger Treaty of 8 April 1965,
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...EuropeanExploration and Conquest
During the age of exploration Europe’s powerful nations greatly influenced numerous parts of the world. Britain, Spain, and France all took part in the rush to conquer newly discovered lands and other areas in Asia and the pacific. However, it didn’t just affect the lands that were being explored; it had a noticeable influence of the “mother” nations. New products were introduced, the European economy got a boost, new trading routs were opened, and new colonies were being established. When studied with more detail we can see effects on Europe and expeditionary lands during the age of exploration and today.
Numerous new products were introduced to Europe as a result of exploration. For example, spices from India were in high demand in Europe which drove explorers to find faster and more efficient ways to transport goods from India. Explorers traveled great distances around the southern tip of Africa to reach the plentiful lands in East Asia. Marco Polo was the first major explorer to attempt to reach the Far East and find new trading routs. Polo was a Venetian who did his exploration of India and China in the late 1200’s. He showed that it was possible to sail and navigate to and from China and India. Others in Europe took notice of this because spices from that part of the world were highly valued and were in very high demand....

...Chapter 3: EuropeanExploration and Colonization
Trade Route to Asia in the 1400s
European Trade With Asia
Traders - people who get wealth by buying items from a
group of people at a low price and selling those things to
other people at higher prices.
European countries use trade to gain wealth
The stronger countries in Europe in the 1400s and 1500s England, Spain, France and Portugal.
Kings and queens wanted to gain wealth - to build larger
armies and navies to dominate other countries.
Europe wants to trade with Asia
A trader would want to buy items in Asia and sell them in
Europe to make a lot of money by selling luxuries (silks,
carpets, & jewels) that were not available in Europe.
Muslims controlled land routes to Asia
Land routes - the roads and trails people traveled to get from
one place to another.
Muslims - people who controlled the land routes between
Europe and Asia.
European traders had to solve their problem with Muslimcontrolled land - going by sea around Muslim-controlled
land.
Finding a sea route to Asia
Two problems sailors faced before the 1400s were a. They did not have good ways of knowing where
they were if they got beyond sight of land.
b. The maps were poor and their ships were too slow
to make long voyages.
Inventions help sailors
The invention of the astrolabe and the caravel - sailors travel
faster, farther, and more safely.
The...

...There were many reasons for Europeanexploration. As Europes demand for Eastern goods grew Europeans began to search for new trading routes to reduce the expenses. Another reason for exploration was the arrival of Marco Polo. When he returned from China, he came back with stories of the East. In addition, each empire wanted to expand its empire and acquire colonies and gold in order to fulfill the imperialism principle, which stated that a strong empire must have the most bullion or silver. Moreover, Europeans also set off to explore the land in order to spread Catholicism. In other words, God, gold, and glory stated and summarized the Europeans motives for exploration. The Portuguese and Spanish empires were one of the first to start exploring the New World.
The Portuguese exploration was one of the first Europeanexplorations. The Portuguese started sending voyages to find new trading routes. The Portuguese also established trading posts along the African shore for the purchase of gold and slaves. The Portuguese established plantations on the African coastal islands of Madeira, the Canaries, Sao Tome, and Principe. The Portuguese pushed farther southward in search of the water route to Asia. Días was the first to get to the southernmost tip of the African continent in 1488. Ten years afterwards Vasco da Gama reached India, making...